In the highly competitive garment manufacturing and retailing environment which exists today and, so far as can be predicted, far into the future, it is becoming more and more urgent for the manufacturer and retailer of garments to cut costs to the maximum extent possible to the end that the final price to the consumer be as low as possible. Garment hangers are a significant cost item in the manufacture, sale, and display of garments and hence pose the potential for cost reduction if increased standardization of them can be achieved. Unfortunately, garment hangers, to the present time, as a practical matter in the marketplace, have not evolved to a one size fits all product. This is due largely to the practical reason that the size range of garments is today so wide that no practical method or structure has been evolved to display, on a single stockkeeping hanger unit, a girls/ladies size 5 brief and mens size 54 slacks. As a consequence the retailer and the garment manufacturer have had to provide a plurality of different sized, though similarly contoured, hangers for the wide range of garment sizes intended to be displayed thereon. Thus it is current practice for a garment hanger manufacturer to offer a pinch clip garment hanger for use by the garment manufacturer and the retailer in several sizes of which a family of hangers consisting of an eight inch, a ten inch and a twelve inch hanger are representative. Each member of said family of hangers has a hook, a body or suspension bar, and a pair of clamps, one at each end of the suspension bar. While the hooks and clamps may be identical from hanger size to hanger size, the suspension bar is not, and hence three stockkeeping units are required to accommodate the differing sizes of garments offered to the consumer. Thus the hanger manufacturer has a mold cost, with respect to the body or suspension bar at least, which is three times greater than if a single size hanger could be manufactured and offered to the garment manufacturer and the retailer. The differing sizes present inventory control problems, production problems, as when one of the three molds breaks and hence an order cannot be filled, and increased costs in the form of providing an overage supply of three different size products to handle unanticipated excess demand as contrasted to a single overage supply if only one size hanger need be provided. These costs, and others associated with multiple stockkeeping units, are passed to the garment manufacturer and then to the retailer. And of course the garment manufacturer faces the problem of managing three stockkeeping units instead of one together with further costs associated with handling and moving hung garments on multiple sizes of hangers.
In addition to the factors mentioned above, there is a need for the combination of a garment and such a hanger which presents a neat, uncluttered appearance to the eye of a potential purchaser in a retail outlet. Specifically, there is a need for a hanger in which the pair of clamps hang absolutely vertical on all sizes of garments from the ladies'size 5 briefs to the men's size 54 slacks. Further, it is important that, in addition to hanging vertically so as to present a neat, uncluttered appearance to the eye, the size of the jaw opening be maximized so that bulky garments may be easily accommodated.
In summary, there is thus a need for a single size garment hanger which can easily, safely and economically serve as the storage, transporting and display structure for garments of a wide variety of sizes which, at the same time, provides a neat appearance to the eye of a potential purchaser when he views a garment hung on said hanger.